Mohammed Soboh
Soboh was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on 10 October 2023. The airstrike struck a location near the Babel Tower while he and others were reporting on what had been announced as an impending strike on the Hajji Tower
Mohammed Soboh was killed on 10 October 2023 when an Israeli airstrike struck near the Babel Tower in Gaza City. He and his colleagues, editor Saeed al-Tawil and photojournalist Hisham al-Nawajha, had earlier evacuated the Hajji Tower, which housed several media offices, after learning that it was marked for bombing by Israeli forces. Determined to document the event, the three journalists positioned themselves at a distance near the Babel Tower to film the pre-announced strike on Hajji Tower. However, instead of hitting only the targeted building, the Israeli missile struck close to where the journalists were standing, killing Soboh instantly. Witnesses reported that the explosion was massive and that the journalists were clearly identifiable as members of the press, wearing protective vests and holding cameras. Soboh’s body was later recovered from the debris and taken to Al-Shifa Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His death was part of a wider pattern of strikes that destroyed media offices and killed several journalists during the early days of the 2023 Gaza war. International organizations such as UNESCO, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the attack and called for an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
Biography
Mohammed Soboh was a Palestinian photo-journalist working for the Khabar news agency. He reported from Gaza City, often covering conflict-related events. On 10 October 2023, Soboh, together with colleagues including editor Saeed al-Taweel and photojournalist Hisham al-Nawajha, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City after moving from the Hajji (“Hajji Tower”) tower block to a location near the Babel Tower to cover a pre-announced strike. He died instantly. His death is recorded by organizations tracking journalist casualties, including UNESCO, CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists), and RSF.
There is very limited publicly verified information about Soboh’s personal life, early career, background, or education. He is described as a staff photographer for the Khabar agency, a Palestinian media outlet. Some martyrdom and local memorial sites list his full name as Mohammed Rizq Mahmoud Suboh (or Subh) and state his age at death as 32 years old. One such source also identifies him as married. Because much of the detailed personal data is recorded in local or Arabic sources that are not always widely indexed, further investigation (especially in Arabic) might reveal more about his life and career.
In his professional role, he joined colleagues in covering a preannounced Israeli strike on Hajji Tower. After they evacuated from that tower, they moved toward the Babel Tower to document the strike, positioning themselves in public view as journalists—preparing cameras, phones, and protective gear, anticipating media coverage. According to a documentation team in the “Media Genocide” compilation, Soboh worked alongside al-Tawil and al-Nawajha in that final act of coverage.
Additional Information
Sources & References
These three journalists were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit the Babel tower block in Gaza City on 10 October. Photo-journalist Hisham al-Nawajha and his editor, Saeed al-Tawil, had evacuated the office of the Palestinian news website Al-Khamisa in the nearby Hajji tower block and had stationed themselves close to the Babel Tower to cover the pre-announced Israeli strike on their tower block. Al-Tawil was killed instantly while Al-Nawajha was badly injured and died after being rushed to Al-Shifa Hospital. Mohammed Soboh, a photo-journalist with the Palestinian news agency Khabar, was also killed instantly while covering Israel’s attack on the Hajji Tower from the Babel Tower. During the funeral ceremony for the three journalists in a Gaza City hospital a few hours later, helmets worn by press reporters were placed atop the white sheets covering their bodies as a tribute to their work as journalists.1 rsf.org Open source